A member of the NYPD looks over demonstrators with 'Occupy Wall Street' protest at Zuccotti Park before they start cleaning up their belongings Thursday. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty)

A showdown loomed Friday morning between Occupy Wall Street and the NYPD after protesters vowed to defy orders to leave Zuccotti Park so it can be cleaned.

The city said protesters could return to the park after the cleanup - but without the sleeping bags, tents and tarps that have made their 28-day sit-in possible.

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"We see this as a pretext to shut the occupation down," protester Amin Husain said.

Occupy Wall Street said it would resist any attempt by the city or the owners of the park to shift protesters from the public plaza where they have camped since Sept. 17.

"They will not foreclose our home!" Husain shouted. "This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic. We won't allow them to come in."

They geared up for a confrontation, calling on supporters to mobilize at 6 a.m. "to defend the occupation from eviction."

They planned to link arms and fortify the park perimeter with a human chain, forcing mass arrests if the cleanup goes forward.

Brookfield Properties, which owns the park but must legally allow 24-hour public access, said conditions "have deteriorated to unsanitary and unsafe levels" and said it must power wash the plaza today.

The NYPD said if Brookfield complains that people are interfering with the company's efforts to clean the park, cops will start making arrests.

City Hall assured the protesters they could return to the park after the cleanup and stay as long as they liked - as long as they didn't break the law.

On Twitter, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons offered to "pay for the cleanup of Zuccotti Park to avoid confrontation."

Mass arrests are liable to simply fuel Occupy Wall Street: the rag-tag movement's biggest boosts in the past month have come from the sympathy and publicity generated by what protesters described as heavy-handed police tactics.

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To counter claims that the park is unsanitary, Occupy Wall Street used brooms and bleach to clean it up themselves beginning yesterday.

The crowd voted to spend $3,000 from their $150,000 donation fund on power washers, gardening supplies and professional sanitation workers.

The rented power washers proved to be no use since the park has no water supply.